Design/Build Internship

For the duration of this summer, I will be posting about my internship here in Omaha, NE. I am working with Randy Brown Architects design/build program and am assigned to the McKinley Project (a residential addition.) The ten interns spent the first 2 weeks drawing, modeling, and designing different areas of the project. I and another student are to design the staircase/bar (ascending 20 ft.) to connect most of the house together. After our challenging design began to take shape, reality started to strike. However, since most of the modeling was done in Sketchup, the ability to move from massing to construction documents was fluid. I am not usually a big fan or using Sketchup for design, but the ability to draw very quickly and use dimensioned lumber/steel was extremely handy. The Sketchup model was all to scale and with dimensioned lumber provided by Sketchup, we were able to bring life to the form and create a feasible structure. The model then was sectioned and put into CAD and within less than a day, we had all dimensioned construction documents to build the project. Next part, building the stairs.

The idea behind the stair idea was to create a fluid flowing wall that bends and breaks and becomes more than just a staircase. The wall inhabits the stairs, it houses the pedestrians, it provides seating and bookshelves for moments upon the assent/decent. The viewer transverses the stairs entering the wall, breaks free, pierces again, then emerges from the wall. The "wall" continues upward to become the shroud to enclose the upstairs bar. The “wall” has a life of many responsibilities, not just one to be touched or dry walled.

Randy's office is now at 120th and Blondo which I've hardly been at since we've done all the construction documents and preliminary design on site. The pictures should be posted soon. Thanks for the comments.